Office 2010 product key activation methods

Office 2010 need to be activated before you could continue to use its full features, after an initial grace period. This is similar to windows activation to activate a copy of windows 7 or vista on your computer. Find below the details on the various activation methods.

Activation is usually done either during setup of office 2010 or when you start any office application for the first time after installation.The activation process is triggered when you enter a valid office 2010 product key for the edition you bought.However, you may choose to defer the activation to a later time, rather than doing it during set up or installation.

How to activate office 2010?

To activate a copy of office 2010 at a later time, you can do the following.

1. Open any office 2010 product like Word or Excel and click the File tab.

Next, Click Help and then click Activate Product Key button. If your copy is already activated, you will not see this button. You will instead find a message stating “Product Activated”.

On clicking the button, you will be guided by an activation wizard and you have to follow the instructions on the wizard to activate microsoft office 2010.When the wizard finishes, exit the Office program and then restart it for the activation to take effect.

The activation Wizard will give you choices to either activate office 2010 over the internet or by phone.You can choose any one of the options, though activation over the internet is the quickest and easiest method.

Office 2010 Product key activation over the internet

If you choose the activation over internet method, the activation Wizard contacts the Microsoft licensing servers for validating and activating the product. The servers validate the entered product key and if they have not been used for the maximum number of installations allowed to be activated with the key, the current installation is automatically activated. Since a product key can be used to activate a certain number of installations, the servers validate both the genuineness of the key and the number times it has been used to validate any other Office 2010 installation.

The entire process is automatic. The Office 2010 product ID is derived from the key and this is then validated by the Microsoft servers. If the product ID passes the test, the servers send back a confirmation ID to your computer to activate Office 2010.

Since the entire process happens over the internet, it is essential that you are connected to the internet for using this method. If you are not connected, the activation wizard will alert you to connect to the internet.

Office 2010 Product key activation by telephone

If you don’t have an internet connection or if you prefer to activate the product by calling a Microsoft Customer Service Executive over phone, you can choose to “Activate by telephone”. You will then be prompted to choose the country of residence and the place (Home, Office etc.) where you use the product being activated. You will then be given the telephone number of the nearest microsoft customer service center.

You may then call this number to talk to a Microsoft executive. You will have to tell the Office 2010 installation ID displayed on your computer monitor and any other information that the executive may require to confirm the purchase. It will be easier if you are ready with all the information related to the purchase, before you call the Microsoft Activation center.

After the executive validates the installation ID and other relevant information, you will be given a confirmation ID. This is similar to the ID that the microsoft servers send back to your computer in the “Activation by Internet” method. After receiving this ID, enter it in the appropriate space on the activation wizard and hit ENTER on your keyboard. That is it!

Since most of the process is manual in this method, it takes more time than the first method which is fully automatic. You should also be near the computer where the product is being activated as you need to provide certain information and also enter the confirmation ID in the wizard for the product to be activated.

Note that activation by telephone is not available for trial and Subscription versions of office 2010.

The above are methods to activate an office 2010 product on your home computer.If you are using a volume edition of Microsoft Office 2010 (usually at work places), then you will have to activate office 2010 using volume licenses.

The above methods are for activating a genuine office 2010 product key and not the one that you generated using a key-gen program.